Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons is set to speak to the U.S. Department of Justice about the Tarrant County Jail, a staff member confirmed to KERA News Wednesday.
The meeting comes months after the in-custody death of Anthony Johnson Jr. — ruled a homicide — prompted calls for reforms in the jail. Two days after Johnson's death, Simmons said she would ask the DOJ to investigate his death.
Johnson is one of at least 65 people who have died in jail custody since Sheriff Bill Waybourn took office in 2017. Simmons — who is in Washington, D.C. this week to attend the Congressional Black Caucus conference — has been a vocal critic of Waybourn's tenure, and has publicly called for his resignation.
Simmons also publicly called for a DOJ investigation into the jail. It's not clear whether her meeting is part of such an investigation. The DOJ declined to comment.
A statement from Waybourn's office said the sheriff was also recently invited by the DOJ to discuss jail operations, including best practices and policy revisions in the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office to solve operational challenges. That meeting was last week, according to Waybourn's office.
Also last week, Waybourn proposed a series of reforms including a comprehensive third-party review of his office's policies. The request for a third-party policy review comes after KERA reported the Sherriff’s Office has not updated its use-of-force policies in more than a decade.
"Sheriff Waybourn is open to partnering with the DOJ to be the model facility in how jails across the country should be run," the Sheriff's Office wrote in a statement Tuesday.
Simmons' trip is scheduled the same week county commissioners will hold a special called meeting to vote on early voting locations, which could remove college campuses from the list.
Both she and Commissioner Roy Brooks, a fellow Democrat, will not be able to attend the meeting in person for Thursday's vote. Brooks said he will be chairing a meeting of the National Organization of Black County Officials and cannot join Thursday's meeting remotely. Simmons has said she intends to join over Zoom.
Simmons said in a statement that she and Brooks received authorization to attend their conferences during the Aug. 6 commissioners court meeting.
"Since that approval over a month ago, the county judge has decided to call a special called meeting in both mine and Commissioner Brooks’ absence tomorrow to vote on crucial election issues," Simmons said. "This appears to be a targeted attempt to limit certain members of the commissioner's court’s ability to participate."
Last week, Republican Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare questioned the proposed early voting locations at colleges and said it’s not the county’s job to make it easier for specific groups, like students, to vote.
Commissioners rejected the proposed list in a 2-2 vote, with Democrats voting to approve and Republicans voting to reject. Republican Commissioner Manny Ramirez was not present, and a tie means the motion fails.
County staff will come back with three new lists of early voting sites for commissioners to consider at a meeting Thursday, all of which include fewer voting sites and fewer college locations.
Simmons previously said Thursday's meeting was scheduled to exclude the Democratic commissioners.
"All of this is blatant. It's outrageously partisan. It's cowardly," she said. "These efforts are targeted at communities of color to suppress their vote."
In her statement, Simmons said she intends to fight "Tarrant County voter suppression" as a virtual attendee during Thursday's meeting and in her conversations with White House officials.
KERA reporter Miranda Suarez contributed to this report. This is a developing story and will be updated.
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